Umang Gupta was instrumental in making IIT the prominent brand it is in the US and the world

FREMONT, CA: Umang Gupta, a well-known figure in Silicon Valley for his never-say-die mindset, died peacefully in San Mateo, in the San Francisco Bay Area, on Tuesday, April 19. For the past two years, the remarkable diaspora citizen has been battling bladder cancer. Umang Gupta is regarded as a pioneer for being the first Indian to take a software company public on the NASDAQ in 1993. Gupta Technologies, his company, was a forerunner of the Silicon Valley tech boom headed by Indian American CEOs.

Gupta was a well-known figure in the field of information technology. His professional successes shaped the identity of Indians as an entrepreneurial force, as he was one of the pioneering Indian Silicon Gurus. They founded firms and gained prominence in California's Silicon Valley in the 1980s and 1990s. His community-building endeavors aided these Silicon Valley trailblazers in establishing the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) as a globally recognized brand. Gupta, an IIT Kanpur graduate from 1971, co-founded the IIT Kanpur Foundation in 2002 and served as its first chairperson in the United States. He also served as the chair of PanIIT's the USA and Global Boards, one of India's most distinguished alumni networks. He also founded the IIT Kanpur Alumni Association. Sanjiv Sahay, a Bay Area-based entrepreneur and CEO of Asquare who is also an IIT Kanpur graduate, reminiscence how they met in 1999 and became good friends. It was also recollected how Gupta had a knack for inspiring volunteers and was actively involved in IIT Kanpur issues.

Umang Gupta was born in Patiala in 1949 and grew up in several Indian towns because his father was a government officer. He majored in Chemical Engineering at IIT Kanpur, but the 'techie at heart' wanted to learn more about the business sector. Gupta moved to the United States to pursue his MBA at Kent State University in Ohio. After graduating in 1973, he went to work for IBM as a computer sales representative, eventually rising through the ranks to become a senior marketing manager. It was a period when the globe was transitioning from industrial to business machinery. He spent a year at Magnuson Computers before joining Relational Software (now Oracle) as the company's 17th employee in 1981. Gupta won the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur's Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1996. His IIT Kanpur Foundation helped his alma mater raise cash. 'He became a leader in the drive to bring (together) the alumni association of all IITs,' according to a statement made by his family on April 21, 2022, following his death.